I have a nice small collection of houseplants. I really like houseplants as they bring a nice touch of green nature into your space. They can take a space that feels plain and uninviting, and make it feel alive and well kept. Beyond aesthetic reasons, I also enjoy learning about my plants and seeing how they grow.
My journey with plants started In late Highschool / early college. I would go to home depot and see a cool plant that I liked. I would buy it, take it home, and think “wow this is awesome, I love having a plant!”. This infatuation would wear off as quickly as it came, and within 2 weeks the plant would be a dead reminder of my inability to commit to anything. I liked plants as a concept, but in practice I just did not put any time, effort, or love into keeping them alive. That all changed when I started volunteering at my school’s greenhouse. I met the lovely old greenhouse keeper, Bob, who had a deep passion for plants and sharing his knowledge with students. I would go to the greenhouse every Wednesday before my classes, and just sit with Bob and help out in various ways. Picking weeds, watering, pruning, whatever. Every week I came by, he would give me a plant propagation, teaching me where to cut, how to get the right soil mixture, help me put them in a pot, and let me take it home. My very first one was Epipremnum aureum – Golden Pothos, the quintessential beginner plant. I placed this little plant on my desk in my room, and I felt different about this plant than any of the other plants I had ever gotten. This wasn’t some big box store impulse buy, this plant was made with love <3 and I was obligated to care for it.
I continued going to Bob’s greenhouse every week, and each time I would come home with a new plant. Monstera Deliciosa, Philodendron, Syngonium Podophyllum, Chlorophytum comosum, and on and on and on. Soon enough, my room was filled and I was at max capacity! My passion for plants grew stronger with every new leaf. I began to water them properly, think about how much sunlight they were getting, prune them, repot them, etc. After traveling and downsizing and moving, I am left with a nice collection that I will show. All the plants I currently have are “Aroids” which means they are in the Araceae family. This family is found around the world, but generally most prolific in the tropics of the americas:
Monstera Delicisosa:
This plant came from Bob’s greenhouse, and I first propagated and planted it in march of 2023. When I got it, I put it in my hot car, and left it inside for too long. By the time it made it into my house, all the leaves were extremely droopy and the edges of started to turn brown. I thought it was a goner forsure.
I always thought that such a beautiful plant would be finicky and hard to take care of. My opinion changed when I saw a reddit comment that said “A Monstera will grow in a shoe filled with garbage given the right light and water” and I have to agree. Yes, if you want your monstera to look like it belongs in an art gallery, you’ll need to be more attentive. But generally speaking, these things are tanks and they will put up with a lot.
Sure enough, my monstera survived, and over the course of the last couple years it has started to really thrive. The biggest change was when I moved it from a moderately sunny spot in the middle of my room, to directly by the window. This extra light + fertilizer + a bigger pot + a good soil mix (⅓ potting soil, ⅓ orchid bark, and ⅓ perlite) has caused it to explode in growth. This species is debatably the most popular houseplant, and there is a reason why it is such an icon in the typical houseplant repertoire.
The genus Monstera has around 59 species. It’s native to the tropical forests of southern Mexico, through central America, and down to panama. It grows in dense forests in the understory, and attaches to trees while it “crawls” upwards to reach more sunlight. These plants can also get HUGE! See the picture of this monstera I found growing on the side of the road in Mexico City. This thing was massive! Monstera deliciosa gets its name from its fruit, which I hear tastes like a mixture between banana and pineapple. What makes monsters so unique is the holes they develop in their leaves, hence why the common name is the “swiss cheese plant”. These holes are called “Fenestrations” and there’s a few debated theories as to why they occur: 1. increased water intake 2. reduced damage from the wind 3. herbivore deterrence. There is another theory from Christopher Muir of Indiana University that has taken place as the leading theory. He says that the holes in the leaves allow the plant to spread out more, and capture more sunlight while still using the same amount of plant material. This additionally allows sunlight to filter through the holes onto the lower leaves of the plant.
Philodendron:
I’m not sure exactly what species of philodendron I have, as there are also at least 600 species. All I know about this guy, is that it is a beast. I got this plant from Bob’s greenhouse 2 years ago in 2023 and it has just exploded in the last year. When I first got it, it had 2-3 leaves. Now it has over 10! I also thought this plant was a goner at one point. I started noticing the bottom leaves turning yellow all the sudden. I watered more, watered less, moved it out of the sun, changed the soil, added fertilizer, and yet the leaves were still dying off. Then I noticed these tiny little bugs on the leaves called “scale bugs”. I found out they suck the nutrients from the plant and kill it from the base up. I aggressively removed them from the plant, and would check for more bugs every couple of days for a month. Eventually my plant overcame and is now thriving. It’s so big that I have a string tied to a hook in the wall to keep it from falling over. One of these days I’m gonna have to chop it and make some propagations, but for now I’m just letting it do its thing. This plant is also pretty easy to grow. Its pretty much the exact same as the Monstera. Good draining soil, bright indirect sunlight, water, and some love.
Philodendrons are another tropical plant that are mostly founds in the tropics of the americas. I wish I could say more about my plant specifically, but it’s hard to say since i don’t know the exact species. Philodendrons can be broken up into climbing and non-climbing species. The climbing species have ariel roots that attach to solid objects as they grow and climb higher. The non-climbing ones are called “self-heading” and typically have much shorter and thicker stems that are strong enough to hold the plant upright. Another fun fact about philodendrons is they produce cataphylls, which are modified leaves that protect new leaves. When new leaf starts to grow, the cataphyll acts as an outer protectve shell that surrounds the new leaf. Some species keep these cataphylls on the plant, but mine fall off a couple weeks after the leaf has opened up!
Epipremnum Aureum – Golden Pothos:
This plant was the first one I got from Bob’s Greenhouse. I don’t have that original one anymore, but I do have another plant I got off facebook marketplace. This is widely regarded as one of the best plants to get as a beginner because it’s so damn easy to take care of. I put it on my desk where it gets a decent amount of sunlight, and it seems happy as ever. I have not given it any special care at all and it just goes. Great little plant!
Epipremnum aureum is a vining plant that is native to Mo’orea in the Society Islands of French Polynesia, but its since been naturalized in tropical areas all around the world. Unfortunately, this plant has become a big invasive species in some tropical areas. In Sri Lanka specifically, it has completely overgrown some forest floors and trunks of the trees. This plant, like many aroids and tropical plants, are very easy to propagate. I trim a couple leaves off of the node section, stick it in water for a couple weeks and let it grow roots, then plant it in some soil and call it good! This plant is an awesome little bullet proof plant to add some flair to your room. Small and contained too.
Closing Thoughts:
I just love having plants. It’s the best. It clicked for me once I really started to take the time to learn about their natural habitats and how they grow natively. No longer was it just some green object to keep alive for the sake of decoration, it was a living thing that I understood and WANTED to care for.
I think that some people think that a houseplants hobby is expensive. It CERTAINLY can be, but in general I think it’s an extremely cheap way to add some joy to your life. All you need is good soil (⅓ potting soil, ⅓ orchid bark, and ⅓ perlite – for most aroids), some plant, some water, and light. If you stick with some standard house plants (any of the ones I talked about above) then taking care of them should be relatively simple. Once you start getting into more special variegations and rare plants, it not only gets more expensive to buy those plants, but caring for them is generally more complex (humidity control, special fertilizer, special soil, etc). If I were starting out, I would just get some golden pothos (you can find it at any nursery) and see how it goes.
I also learned that killing plants is a big part of growing plants. If you aren’t killing any plants, then you’re probably not growing much either. It just takes a while to get a feel for what plants need and how to take care of them. For instance your plants leaves turn yellow so you google it. It says “could be over watering, underwatering, too much sun, not enough sun, too much fertilizer, not enough fertilizer, or pests!” then you are left more confused than when you started. It’s all part of the process though and it’ll make more sense over time. I also thought that having houseplants would be a huge commitment and require a ton of time and effort to keep my plants alive. But in reality, once you have a decently healthy plant in some good soil and some good sunlight, its really not that much work. I water my plants every 1-2 weeks and that’s kinda it. Sometimes I fertilize them, prune them, report them, propagate, but I barely ever do any of that. For the most part I just look at them and appreciate how they look 🙂 I love seeing new leaves come up. I love how easily you can propagate and share cuttings with people. I love how they make a room feel alive when you walk into it. My collection is relatively small now, but In the future when i’m moving around less, i’d love to expand my collection. I hope you enjoyed reading about my plants!